I had what you would call an “awakening†this Halloween and it was somewhat alarming to me since it involved my thirteen year old son. Now we don’t take this holiday too terribly seriously.  Let’s face it: the kids want candy and fun costumes! The one thing that was missing this year was my older son not wanting to participate in dressing up or asking for candy.  Instead of trick or treating he wanted to go to a friend’s house to play video games, stay up really late and along the way terrify the young ones coming to the door asking for candy.
I do get it, I just wasn’t prepared for that rite of passage to be over for my first born, and yes it made me a little sad. With all that being said, I was absolutely thrilled that many neighborhoods choose to make Halloween a community event by having hot dogs, chili, apple bobbing and yes, candy! There seemed to be such a sense of familiarity that absolutely warmed my heart and made me thankful that people still want to connect with their neighbors. The costumes were so much fun to observe this year and of course there were some inappropriate ones, as well as one in particular that made me place my hands across my eight year old’s eyes!
The question that keeps running through my mind is, how old is too old to go trick or treating? What’s the rule? Does anyone know? Is this just something that one decides for oneself? I will admit in my twenties my friends and I dressed up and knocked on doors for the sole purpose of seeing the shocked look on people’s faces. I remember one house in particular where we were chastised rather strongly by a husband and wife who accused us of taking candy from children and promptly slammed the door in our faces after telling us that they were not amused. Ouch! Suffice it to say, I did not partake ever again!
Now my elder son may have moved on from the whole dressing up and going door to door affair, but he certainly has not moved on from partaking in the eating of the candy! He attacked his brother’s spoils with the ferocity of a wolverine and left a path of empty candy wrappers as proof. Ok, so one thing at a time, some rites of passage will end in stages, I guess. I’m quite sure that this will not be the last thing that my teen will outgrow.  There will surely be tears as well as celebrations as he moves on to parties and other social events that I will not be privy to in every detail. My older son knew early on about Santa and the Easter Bunny, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised he was done with particular parts of Halloween. So what’s next? I will have to admit that maybe I am in denial since next year he goes to High School! Could girls and dating be the next challenge?